


The Devil in Me

by dentedsky



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Canon Compliant, Halloween, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-17 20:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16980999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dentedsky/pseuds/dentedsky
Summary: Zack takes Cloud to the Shinra Halloween function.





	The Devil in Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [boombox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/boombox/gifts).



> For BoomBox who was my recipient for the Clack Secret Santa 2018 (Clickety-Clack Discord Server). I hope you like this lovely :p
> 
> A big thank you to Jaz for the quick beta read.

 

“So, did you get the package?” Cloud asked shyly as he walked through the door. He was always hesitant coming into Zack’s private rooms, but Zack could see there was a level of anticipation in his expression today.

“Hell yeah, I got it,” said Zack with a lopsided grin. Cloud smiled and closed the door. Zack’s hair was still wet from his shower, and a droplet of water slid down his neck and under the collar of his white unbuttoned shirt.

The ‘package’ as it were, was a pink zip-up bag embroidered with blue flowers, about the size of two hands. Zack brandished it and jiggled his eyebrows. The contents clinked.

“You’re ridiculous,” Cloud told him fondly, “and you’re not even in costume yet.”

“I’ve got pants on,” said Zack, “and a shirt; that’s already half-way there.” He gave Cloud a surreptitious once-over; he was wearing black faux leather trousers and a dark red long-sleeved turtle neck, just the right amount of tight-fitting on his lithe body. Zack tried not to let his gaze linger. “Okay, bring out your props.”

Cloud sat on Zack’s bed, opened his bag and pulled out a red tail and a headband with two devil horns. Then he pulled out the third item. “I managed to get it – “

Zack snatched the black eyepatch out of his hands. “Thanks, buddy!” He put it on and struck a pose. “How do I look?”

“Good.”

“Well,” began Zack, handing Cloud the pink make-up bag, “I’m going to need yet another favour from you.”

Cloud seemed relaxed as he unzipped the bag and rummaged through it. Zack had thought about stealing Aerith’s make-up, but had decided just to ask her instead. Surprisingly, she had agreed readily, asking only that he get a photo. Cloud pulled out a black eye liner pencil, and Zack sat next to him on the bed, leaning close.

With a soft, hesitant hand to Zack’s chin, Cloud gently maneuvered Zack’s face in the position he wanted. Pencil poised, Cloud licked his lips and asked lowly, “So you want… a scar, or something?”

“And the eyes,” said Zack. “You may as well do both so I can swap the patch from each side during the night.”

“Okay,” said Cloud, seeming less sure now, but his hands were steady as he drew along the line of lashes. Then with still a gentle touch to Zack’s jaw, he tilted his face and did the other eye. Then he drew a scar with stitches on one cheek.

When Cloud leaned back, he smiled a little, satisfied with his work.

*

Zack, dressed fully as a swash-buckling pirate, hat and all, convinced Cloud to knock on Kunsel’s door.

A gorilla opened the door and roared, making Cloud jump and Zack laugh.

The gorilla-shaped Kunsel came out to the corridor and shut the door behind him. “We’re all ready to go, right?”

“Hells yeah,” said Zack. “By the way man, you look great.”

“You too,” said Kunsel distractedly, giving Cloud a once over. He suddenly grabbed Zack’s arm, pulling him along. Cloud followed at a short distance. “Is that _your_ doing?” he whispered in Zack’s ear, voice muffled through the mask.

"...my doing?"

Kunsel and Zack looked over their shoulders at Cloud, who peered up through his soft blonde bangs and gave a Zack a small, shy smile that made heat shoot straight to Zack’s stomach. He looked so cute tonight: tight costume with a devil’s tail pinned to the back of his trousers, and a devil horns headband on his head. _I would do anything to protect you_ , Zack thought, the words coming unbidden into his mind. _Anything_.

Zack couldn’t see Kunsel’s expression, but he knew the guy was giving Zack a flat, unimpressed look.

Zack looked forward and pressed his lips together. “No, it’s not my doing. He came up with that all on his own.”

“You are so done for,” said Kunsel, after a pause.

*

Zack and Kunsel were given paper red wrist bands, while Cloud was given blue, indicating to the barmen that Cloud was too young to be served alcohol. Cloud stared down at it and sighed.

"I can sneak some to you," Zack whispered into Cloud's ear as they walked down the corridor to the club in the basement. Cloud moved abruptly, causing Zack’s lips to brush against his cheek by accident.

“Are you trying to get fired?” Kunsel was saying.

Zack ignored the heat of his own cheeks and looked at Kunsel over his shoulder. “We won’t be caught.”

“No, he’s right,” said Cloud, looking straight ahead. His blonde hair covered his eyes and Zack couldn’t see his expression. “No point risking it.”

Zack waved his concerns away. “I’ll order a vodka and tonic, you order a lemonade, and occasionally we’ll accidentally sip from each other’s drink, and Bob’s your uncle.”

Kunsel’s gorilla mask seemed to be judging him. “There a reason you’re trying to get him drunk?” he murmured lowly.

Inside the club was already packed with Shinra employees. He saw Turks in one corner and SOLDIER Second Classes in the other corner, nursing their drinks and chatting. The three friends made their way to the bar, Zack sidling up to a Phantom of the Opera Genesis without hesitation.

“Time to get some drinks in me,” Zack told him. Genesis gave him a cool look.

“’My friend, your desire is the bringer of life,’” Genesis replied, quoting Loveless as usual.

“That’s me buddy, bringer of life. Vodka and tonic for me and a lemonade for Cloud here,” he added to the barmen, throwing Cloud a quick smirk.

Two drinks in, Zack and Cloud had managed to chat to a few colleagues, Cloud shyly shadowing Zack as they made their way around the room. The band had gone on stage and were tuning. Heads turned as Sephiroth entered, not dressed as anything Halloween but just as himself. Zack waved to him enthusiastically, his two drinks having already gone to his head apparently.

“Don’t!” Cloud shushed him, grabbing Zack’s waving arm to pull it down. Cloud was hardly strong enough to do such a thing, but Zack lowered his arm anyway and let Cloud’s hand linger.

“What’s the matter? We should go say hello – “

“Can we not?” Cloud said lowly, and when Zack looked at him he seemed in a panic.

Zack watched him beat more. “Okay,” he said, easily. “Let’s get another drink.”

This time Zack and Cloud took their drinks to a table and sneakily swapped them.

"You don't need to be so shy," Zack told him, "he's just a person."

“I know,” Cloud said, looking into his vodka and tonic, “but I’m just… he’s not like…” He gestured at Zack vaguely. “He’s not like you.”

“Like me?” Zack laughed. “What do you mean?”

“Unapproachable, I guess? You’re just…” Cloud looked into his drink. “You’re just normal. Just you.”

Zack felt a stab of jealousy so hard he almost fell off the chair. He tried and failed to keep his smile in place as he watched his friend, head bowed and blonde hair looking messy and soft. “Oh… okay.”

His dejection must have been evident in his tone because Cloud’s head shot up and he looked at Zack with big blue eyes. “That’s not what I meant,” he said quickly. He screwed his eyes shut. “I mean, it is.” He looked back at his glass. “I’m terrible with words.”

Zack softened. “It’s alright, bud.”

“No… It isn’t. How do I tell you… how do I even begin to explain what you mean to me – “

They were interrupted by two infantrymen from Cloud’s squadron, a vampire and a ghost, who came to sit next to Cloud. Both boys seemed kind of starstruck by Zack when Cloud attempted stilted introductions, and then the band had finally started up, singing a rock cover of a song two decades old.

Two more drinks later and Zack insisted Cloud join him on the small dance floor. Zack, drunk as anything and eyepatch missing, danced with abandon, letting his limbs go loose and not caring one bit if any of his colleagues judged him. If he looked around, he would see that most of them were in the same boat; but it was Cloud he looked at, small and shy, swinging from side to side stiffly even after Zack had snuck him alcohol.

But then Cloud caught his eye and smiled, and all Zack cared in that moment was bad dances and Cloud’s face.

*

Zack clumsily kicked off his shoes as he walked through to his bedroom, singing the first verse of a song he could barely remember under his breath. Cloud quietly closed the front door behind him, the lights dim. Zack fell on his bed face first, and Cloud hesitated.

“Just sleep with me,” Zack mumbled into the pillow, smacking the space on the bed next to him. “….Okay so that came out wrong. I mean you can sleep here.”

“I don’t think we’ll fit,” Cloud told him quietly.

“We’ll make it work,” said Zack. _I want to make it work between us, somehow,_ he thought, but the concept was all scrunched together as one stupid dream he held close to himself in the darkest hour of night.

There was a rustle as Cloud took off his shoes and lay on the bed next to him. He’d lost the horned headband back at the bar at some point.

The next morning Cloud was pressed against him, warm and cozy, fingers curled near his chin, blonde eyelashes feathered against his cheeks. _This one_ , Zack thought. _My own_.

End.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
